COLAs contribute to gargantuan debt

By Jason W. Cumbo

Published: Friday, March 21, 2014 at 09:31 PM.

To the editor:

President Barack Obama and his cohorts speak of equality for all. It’s about time. Back in the mid-1960s look at the way COLA was applied to pay of government employees, military, postal service, Social Security and the good Lord only knows who else. Congress approved pay increases based on COLA which was based on the Consumer Price Index that kept track of the rise in prices of a group of items consumed/;urchased for our everyday needs.

My opinion is that this started an inequality and produced the outrageous debt this great naion faces today. Now this was good for those who worked for the government of America, states, counties, cities and towns; but if you were not working for one of those levels of government, you suffered the effects of higher costs of the COLA.

Don’t get me wrong — I worked for the government for over 30 years in the U.S. Air force and civil service, a registered Democrat until recently, and have nothing against anyone in these areas. My problem is those we send to the White House to govern; mainly the Democrats, because they have had the most control over the years.

Here’s how COLA worked: If your salary was $10,000 a year and Congress OK’d a COLA of say 6 percent, your pay went to $10,600. If your salary was $50,000, it went to $53,000. That’s only a difference of $2,400 but we all know that the higher-paid employee drives a more expensive car, eats higher on the hog and all that good stuff. For the General Schedule employee, the govenrment gives them the same subsidy on their medical insurance, equal leave time, etc. So why not the same when it comes to applying the COLA raises?

To me, drawing pay at the middle grades, it makes me wonder why I should get more than the lower-paid guy. Had they taken the lower pay and applied 6 percent, as stated above, and given the same amount to all, there would not be a debt of $18 trillion.

A recent letter from Luis J. Alers-Dejesus stated there were 82,034 federal employees that make $150,000 a year; 44,898 at $160,000; and 44,757 at $170,000. Let’s take that and calculate the number of employees, 171,689 ,then the total amount paid to that group equals $27,097,470,000. Now see what could have been saved if Congress had given each employee an equal amount of $600; 171,689 multiplied by $2,400 equals $412,053,600. The difference could have gone toward the $18 trillion debt.

President Barack Obama and his cohorts speak of equality for all. It’s about time. Back in the mid-1960s look at the way COLA was applied to pay of government employees, military, postal service, Social Security and the good Lord only knows who else. Congress approved pay increases based on COLA which was based on the Consumer Price Index that kept track of the rise in prices of a group of items consumed/;urchased for our everyday needs.

My opinion is that this started an inequality and produced the outrageous debt this great naion faces today. Now this was good for those who worked for the government of America, states, counties, cities and towns; but if you were not working for one of those levels of government, you suffered the effects of higher costs of the COLA.

Don’t get me wrong — I worked for the government for over 30 years in the U.S. Air force and civil service, a registered Democrat until recently, and have nothing against anyone in these areas. My problem is those we send to the White House to govern; mainly the Democrats, because they have had the most control over the years.

Here’s how COLA worked: If your salary was $10,000 a year and Congress OK’d a COLA of say 6 percent, your pay went to $10,600. If your salary was $50,000, it went to $53,000. That’s only a difference of $2,400 but we all know that the higher-paid employee drives a more expensive car, eats higher on the hog and all that good stuff. For the General Schedule employee, the govenrment gives them the same subsidy on their medical insurance, equal leave time, etc. So why not the same when it comes to applying the COLA raises?

To me, drawing pay at the middle grades, it makes me wonder why I should get more than the lower-paid guy. Had they taken the lower pay and applied 6 percent, as stated above, and given the same amount to all, there would not be a debt of $18 trillion.

A recent letter from Luis J. Alers-Dejesus stated there were 82,034 federal employees that make $150,000 a year; 44,898 at $160,000; and 44,757 at $170,000. Let’s take that and calculate the number of employees, 171,689 ,then the total amount paid to that group equals $27,097,470,000. Now see what could have been saved if Congress had given each employee an equal amount of $600; 171,689 multiplied by $2,400 equals $412,053,600. The difference could have gone toward the $18 trillion debt.

This is only a small portion of the government employees and, to me, if they started back in the 1960s treating all equally, the government would have money to burn, prices on everything would be lower, jobs would not have gone to China, no need for our taxes to be as high, and I could go on.

Instead of Congress waiting to see if prices would level off after the COLA the first time, the next year — after merchants raised their prices to compensate for the new money provided to a lot of their customers — Congress looks at the CPI and gives approval for another COLA. From then on, 1970 to the present (except for 1984, 1986, 2000 and 2010) there have been raises ranging from 14.2 percent to a low of 1 percent.

Members of Congress only make $174,000 a year; the speaker of the House, $223,500; and House minority leader, $193,400. They will be eligible for full retirement at the age of 62 based on their years of service.

I hope registered voters see the light and vote out all who have served more than two terms and Democrats who voted for Obama-care.